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TELNETD(8) TELNETD(8)
NAME
telnetd - DARPA TELNET protocol server
SYNOPSIS
/usr/kerberos/sbin/telnetd [-a authmode] [-B] [-D] [debugmode] [-ede-
bug] [-h] [-Iinitid] [-l] [-k] [-n] [-rlowpty-highpty] [-s] [-S tos]
[-U] [-X authtype] [-w [ip|maxhostlen[,[no]striplocal]]] [-debug
[port]]
DESCRIPTION
The telnetd command is a server which supports the DARPA standard TEL-
NET virtual terminal protocol. Telnetd is normally invoked by the
internet server (see inetd(8) for requests to connect to the TELNET
port as indicated by the /etc/services file (see services(5)). The
-debug option may be used to start up telnetd manually, instead of
through inetd(8). If started up this way, port may be specified to
run telnetd on an alternate TCP port number.
The telnetd command accepts the following options:
-a authmode
This option may be used for specifying what mode should be used
for authentication. Note that this option is only useful if
telnetd has been compiled with support for the AUTHENTICATION
option. There are several valid values for authmode:
debug Turns on authentication debugging code.
valid Only allow connections when the remote user can provide
valid authentication information to identify the remote
user, and is allowed access to the specified account
without providing a password.
user Only allow connections when the remote user can provide
valid authentication information to identify the remote
user. The login(1) command will provide any additional
user verification needed if the remote user is not
allowed automatic access to the specified account.
other Only allow connections that supply some authentication
information. This option is currently not supported by
any of the existing authentication mechanisms, and is
thus the same as specifying -a valid.
none This is the default state. Authentication information
is not required. If no or insufficient authentication
information is provided, then the login(1) program will
provide the necessary user verification.
off This disables the authentication code. All user verifi-
cation will happen through the login(1) program.
-B Specifies bftp server mode. In this mode, telnetd causes login
to start a bftp(1) session rather than the user's normal shell.
In bftp daemon mode, normal logins are not supported, and it
must be used on a port other than the normal TELNET port.
-D debugmode
This option may be used for debugging purposes. This allows
telnetd to print out debugging information to the connection,
allowing the user to see what telnetd is doing. There are sev-
eral possible values for debugmode:
options
Prints information about the negotiation of TELNET
options.
report Prints the options information, plus some additional
information about what processing is going on.
netdata
Displays the data stream received by telnetd.
ptydata
Displays data written to the pty.
exercise
Has not been implemented yet.
-debug Enables debugging on each socket created by telnetd (see
SO_DEBUG in socket(2)).
-edebug
If telnetd has been compiled with support for data encryption,
then the edebug option may be used to enable encryption debug-
ging code.
-h Disables the printing of host-specific information before login
has been completed.
-I initid
This option is only applicable to UNICOS systems prior to 7.0.
It specifies the ID from /etc/inittab to use when init starts
login sessions. The default ID is fe.
-k This option is only useful if telnetd has been compiled with
both linemode and kludge linemode support. If the -k option is
specified, then if the remote client does not support the
LINEMODE option, then telnetd will operate in character at a
time mode. It will still support kludge linemode, but will
only go into kludge linemode if the remote client requests it.
(This is done by by the client sending DONT SUPPRESS-GO-AHEAD
and DONT ECHO.) The -k option is most useful when there are
remote clients that do not support kludge linemode, but pass
the heuristic (if they respond with WILL TIMING-MARK in
response to a DO TIMING-MARK) for kludge linemode support.
-l Specifies line mode. Tries to force clients to use line-at-a-
time mode. If the LINEMODE option is not supported, it will go
into kludge linemode.
-n Disable TCP keep-alives. Normally telnetd enables the TCP
keep-alive mechanism to probe connections that have been idle
for some period of time to determine if the client is still
there, so that idle connections from machines that have crashed
or can no longer be reached may be cleaned up.
-r lowpty-highpty
This option is only enabled when telnetd is compiled for UNI-
COS. It specifies an inclusive range of pseudo-terminal
devices to use. If the system has sysconf variable
_SC_CRAY_NPTY configured, the default pty search range is 0 to
_SC_CRAY_NPTY; otherwise, the default range is 0 to 128.
Either lowpty or highpty may be omitted to allow changing
either end of the search range. If lowpty is omitted, the -
character is still required so that telnetd can differentiate
highpty from lowpty.
-s This option is only enabled if telnetd is compiled with support
for SecurID cards. It causes the -s option to be passed on to
login(1), and thus is only useful if login(1) supports the -s
flag to indicate that only SecurID validated logins are
allowed, and is usually useful for controlling remote logins
from outside of a firewall.
-S tos
-U This option causes telnetd to refuse connections from addresses
that cannot be mapped back into a symbolic name via the geth-
ostbyaddr(3) routine.
-w [ip|maxhostlen[,[no]striplocal]]
Controls the form of the remote hostname passed to login(1).
Specifying ip results in the numeric IP address always being
passed to login(1). Specifying a number, maxhostlen, sets the
maximum length of the hostname passed to login(1) before it
will be passed as a numeric IP address. If maxhostlen is 0,
then the system default, as determined by the utmp or utmpx
structures, is used. The nostriplocal and striplocal options,
which must be preceded by a comma, control whether or not the
local host domain is stripped from the remote hostname. By
default, the equivalent of striplocal is in effect.
-X authtype
This option is only valid if telnetd has been built with sup-
port for the authentication option. It disables the use of
authtype authentication, and can be used to temporarily disable
a specific authentication type without having to recompile tel-
netd.
Telnetd operates by allocating a pseudo-terminal device (see pty(4))
for a client, then creating a login process which has the slave side
of the pseudo-terminal as stdin, stdout and stderr. Telnetd manipu-
lates the master side of the pseudo-terminal, implementing the TELNET
protocol and passing characters between the remote client and the
login process.
When a TELNET session is started up, telnetd sends TELNET options to
the client side indicating a willingness to do the following TELNET
options, which are described in more detail below:
DO AUTHENTICATION
WILL ENCRYPT
DO TERMINAL TYPE
DO TSPEED
DO XDISPLOC
DO NEW-ENVIRON
DO ENVIRON
WILL SUPPRESS GO AHEAD
DO ECHO
DO LINEMODE
DO NAWS
WILL STATUS
DO LFLOW
DO TIMING-MARK
The pseudo-terminal allocated to the client is configured to operate
in "cooked" mode, and with XTABS and CRMOD enabled (see tty(4)).
Telnetd has support for enabling locally the following TELNET options:
WILL ECHO When the LINEMODE option is enabled, a WILL ECHO
or WONT ECHO will be sent to the client to indi-
cate the current state of terminal echoing. When
terminal echo is not desired, a WILL ECHO is sent
to indicate that telnetd will take care of echo-
ing any data that needs to be echoed to the ter-
minal, and then nothing is echoed. When terminal
echo is desired, a WONT ECHO is sent to indicate
that telnetd will not be doing any terminal echo-
ing, so the client should do any terminal echoing
that is needed.
WILL BINARY Indicates that the client is willing to send a 8
bits of data, rather than the normal 7 bits of
the Network Virtual Terminal.
WILL SGA Indicates that it will not be sending IAC GA, go
ahead, commands.
WILL STATUS Indicates a willingness to send the client, upon
request, of the current status of all TELNET
options.
WILL TIMING-MARK Whenever a DO TIMING-MARK command is received, it
is always responded to with a WILL TIMING-MARK
WILL LOGOUT When a DO LOGOUT is received, a WILL LOGOUT is
sent in response, and the TELNET session is shut
down.
WILL ENCRYPT Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support for
data encryption, and indicates a willingness to
decrypt the data stream.
Telnetd has support for enabling remotely the following TELNET
options:
DO BINARY Sent to indicate that telnetd is willing to
receive an 8 bit data stream.
DO LFLOW Requests that the client handle flow control
characters remotely.
DO ECHO This is not really supported, but is sent to
identify a 4.2BSD telnet(1) client, which will
improperly respond with WILL ECHO. If a WILL
ECHO is received, a DONT ECHO will be sent in
response.
DO TERMINAL-TYPE Indicates a desire to be able to request the
name of the type of terminal that is attached to
the client side of the connection.
DO SGA Indicates that it does not need to receive IAC
GA, the go ahead command.
DO NAWS Requests that the client inform the server when
the window (display) size changes.
DO TERMINAL-SPEED Indicates a desire to be able to request infor-
mation about the speed of the serial line to
which the client is attached.
DO XDISPLOC Indicates a desire to be able to request the
name of the X windows display that is associated
with the telnet client.
DO NEW-ENVIRON Indicates a desire to be able to request envi-
ronment variable information, as described in
RFC 1572.
DO ENVIRON Indicates a desire to be able to request envi-
ronment variable information, as described in
RFC 1408.
DO LINEMODE Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support
for linemode, and requests that the client do
line by line processing.
DO TIMING-MARK Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support
for both linemode and kludge linemode, and the
client responded with WONT LINEMODE. If the
client responds with WILL TM, the it is assumed
that the client supports kludge linemode. Note
that the -k option can be used to disable this.
DO AUTHENTICATION Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support
for authentication, and indicates a willingness
to receive authentication information for auto-
matic login.
DO ENCRYPT Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support
for data encryption, and indicates a willingness
to decrypt the data stream.
FILES
/etc/services
/etc/inittab (UNICOS systems only)
/etc/iptos (if supported)
/usr/ucb/bftp (if supported)
SEE ALSO
telnet(1), login(1), bftp(1) (if supported)
STANDARDS
RFC-854 TELNET PROTOCOL SPECIFICATION
RFC-855 TELNET OPTION SPECIFICATIONS
RFC-856 TELNET BINARY TRANSMISSION
RFC-857 TELNET ECHO OPTION
RFC-858 TELNET SUPPRESS GO AHEAD OPTION
RFC-859 TELNET STATUS OPTION
RFC-860 TELNET TIMING MARK OPTION
RFC-861 TELNET EXTENDED OPTIONS - LIST OPTION
RFC-885 TELNET END OF RECORD OPTION
RFC-1073 Telnet Window Size Option
RFC-1079 Telnet Terminal Speed Option
RFC-1091 Telnet Terminal-Type Option
RFC-1096 Telnet X Display Location Option
RFC-1123 Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application and Support
RFC-1184 Telnet Linemode Option
RFC-1372 Telnet Remote Flow Control Option
RFC-1416 Telnet Authentication Option
RFC-1411 Telnet Authentication: Kerberos Version 4
RFC-1412 Telnet Authentication: SPX
RFC-1571 Telnet Environment Option Interoperability Issues
RFC-1572 Telnet Environment Option
BUGS
Some TELNET commands are only partially implemented.
Because of bugs in the original 4.2 BSD telnet(1), telnetd performs
some dubious protocol exchanges to try to discover if the remote
client is, in fact, a 4.2 BSD telnet(1).
Binary mode has no common interpretation except between similar
operating systems (Unix in this case).
The terminal type name received from the remote client is converted to
lower case.
Telnetd never sends TELNET IAC GA (go ahead) commands.
TELNETD(8)
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